Part 5 - Reviving Grace Series

Pastor Brad Reaves

(c) 2019 Grace Community Church, Winchester, VA

View this sermon at:

https://youtu.be/n9X6xs7MjwA

“Knowing the depth of God's mercy begins with repentance”

Several years ago, The British Weekly published this letter:

Dear Sir: It seems ministers feel their sermons are very important and spend a great deal of time preparing them. I have been attending church quite regularly for 30 years, and I have probably heard 3,000 of them. To my dismay, I discovered I could not remember a single sermon. I wonder if a minister’s time might be more profitably spent on something else?

A response to this editorial could not have said it better:

Dear Sir: I have been married for 30 years. During that time, I have eaten 32,850 meals—mostly my wife’s cooking. Suddenly I have discovered I cannot remember the menu of a single meal. And yet I have the distinct impression that without them, I would have starved to death long ago.

Who knows how many messages the Ninevites had heard or in how many ways God tried to reach them. When Jonah showed up, two things were evident: 1.) He knew and experienced the depth of God's mercy in his own life. 2.) He was faithful to preach God's word as God commissioned him to preach.

Remember that Nineveh was the most brutal and barbaric of cities. Mercy was something they knew nothing about until Jonah appeared. God poured out Mercy on Jonah so that others could come to know God. God poured out mercy in your life so that others can know Him.

If we want to see our community change its views on issues like sexuality, marriage, abortion, or treatment of the poor. If you desire to see crime and violence leave our community. If you want to see the miraculous, marriages healed, and our youth turn to God. It does not begin with protests or programs. It starts with a renewed desire for the power of God to move in our own hearts and then sharing God's grace and mercy with others.

Jonah came to Nineveh. After fleeing and backsliding, he experienced God's mercy again and faithfully preached the message that God

I. God's Mercy is Realized Through Humility

And the people of Nineveh believed God. They called for a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least of them. (Jonah 3:5)

The fact that Jonah does not go to the King, but instead the people of Nineveh is a break in cultural protocol. Nineveh experienced one of the greatest revivals of all history. People began fasting and praying to God. They were mourning over their sin and humbling themselves before God. There was a genuine change in people's hearts and attitudes toward their sin and relationship with God. It was an attitude of humility.

"The oldest of hearts, the deepest despair, the most distant of souls are God's greatest works about to take place." (Richard Phillips)

To experience God's mercy and see him change your heart, there must be a desire for him to rewire your heart. This requires true humility. For the proud heart will never allow God to do His work in your life. True humility is not an abject, groveling, self-despising spirit; it is but a right estimate of ourselves as God sees us.

I saw someone at Hershey Park one day with a t-shirt that said “I’LL LOVE YOU WHEN YOU ARE MORE LIKE ME” This is humility turned on its head.

The American Church is in trouble. Today we lack the humility to submit to God our pride, our will, our sin. Instead, we say, God, I want you to accept my sin instead of dying for my sin. This is the way of the wide road instead of the narrow.

On the opposite side of the coin are those who think they've become God's police force. Did you notice how simple Jonah's message was to Nineveh and how powerful they responded? Our message is a message of repentance and grace. To preach the gospel without repentance is to preach an incomplete message.

II. God's Mercy is Realized Because of Our Repentance

6 The word reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. 7 And he issued a proclamation and published through Nineveh, "By the decree of the king and his nobles: Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything. Let them not feed or drink water, 8 but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and let them call out mightily to God. Let everyone turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands. 9 Who knows? God may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger, so that we may not perish." (Jonah 3:6-9)